


Daemon Space Nine

by agatharights



Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Drabble Collection, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-10
Updated: 2014-08-10
Packaged: 2018-02-12 14:15:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2113032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agatharights/pseuds/agatharights
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of little drabbles I did with my thoughts on characters and their daemons! More to be added, as I write them up. They're tiny little drabbles, really, but very fun to make. I seriously cannot get enough of daemon AUs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Benjamin Sisko

Jackie is not a small daemon, by any standards. Some people have larger daemons, certainly, but a lioness towards the far end of what’s typical for Humans, and that suits her and Benjamin just fine. She’s nearly six feet total, from the tip of her nose to the base of her tail, and she weighs easily as much as a large Klingon.

She could take down a large Klingon, in fact, she’s sure of it, but Benjamin knows that sort of power will never be needed. Jackie is just like Benjamin, in that she has enough power to her that others back down before they’d ever need to take a swing. It lends them both confidence, an obvious trait as they walk together, her heavy padding footfalls following his.

This isn’t to say that they don’t break their cool, when needed. Jackie can bare her huge teeth in rumbling snarls just as Benjamin raises his voice and squares his shoulders. And they have cried, together, as Benjamin wailed and tried to stay near his wife as the life ebbed out of her and the flames grew hot, and Jackie roared an animal scream as Jennifer’s tomcat, a little yellowish companion, disappeared into dust- and then the dust itself disappeared into the smoke filling the ship.

At the end of the day, though, there’s nothing but the calm between them. Tension upon their shoulders that never leaves, but that starts to fade as Jackie sits beside Benjamin’s desk and he reaches to gently scratch her broad head, listening to her chuff and snort. Eventually, she’ll lean over and nudge the baseball with her nose, and lead him back to his quarters when they’re ready.

There is much riding on the both of them, and already she has seen herself appearing among the Bajoran population, in art and depiction, the emissaries daemon, a graceful great feline. Yet to them, she will always be a playful little cub, whose name is strikingly plain and who won’t stop nipping at Benjamin’s ankles. Such is the nature of daemons, though, after all, they are a part of their people just as much as the rest of their soul.


	2. Dax

A symbiont and it’s host become one, when they are joined, but symbionts have no daemons. Or perhaps they do- after all, joined symbionts have many, with their hosts. Dax’s first is Lela’s- a proud canine creature with mottled fur, intelligent and stiff-legged, just as well-spoken and as much of a politician as his person had been. His snout was long and his ears were pricked up and pointed, eyes forward and grizzled grey streaking his muzzle. He’s there, when Tobin comes along, and he stays.

Tobin brings with him a clucking beach-hen, a sandy-feathered creature whose voice is soft and demeanor is nervous, uncertain. She tends to peck at her feet. She’s smart with all his knowledge and theories, but so quiet that it’s hard to get anything from her. Still, she’ll happily offer up technical advice to later hosts, simply content to be useful.

Then there was Emony, who was graceful and lithe and wonderfully expressive and emotional, and her daemon was no different. He was an arboreal creature, something like a terran gibbon, all long limbs and large eyes, perpetually grinning with sharp teeth and grooming his brown fur- full of hooting laughter and energy to excess.

Aurdrid came next, and she was so full of love and care that it overflowed from her in the form of her daemon, a cozy creature with soft fur that carried it’s young on it’s back, clinging to trees and moving with careful deliberation, it’s large ears and dark eyes comforting in a very simple, childish way.

And Torias. Torias with his short life and it’s violent end, so sudden and vivid that hosts would have nightmares about the shuttle accident for decades to come. But he had been a loving man, and his companion no different, a long-tailed creature of short, sharp claws and twitching nose, always fearless jumping from heights and landing on solid feet.

Joran’s daemon was a well-hidden thing that would remain suppressed for some time. She was beautiful, of course, a type of bird whose named translated to some rough ancient term for “jeweled scavenger” and had a supremely lyrical song, trilling and expressive. She also had a hooked beak and heavy talons, alongside her gorgeous display feathers. She was prone to biting, which would surprise no-one, before long.

Then Curzon! Oh, what a long, exciting life that was. He lived on in Jadzia, and Ezri, and in his daemon, who was every bit as strong-willed and exuberant as he was. A decently large bat-monkey, their fur metallic gold and their gliding wing membranes decorated with showy eyespots, used to impress. She was quite the creature to see in action, especially among the Klingons who made the mistake of assuming she was a delicate creature, before she showed she could wrestle a targ with those long, powerful wing-arms.

Jadzia bought with her an intelligence and calm wisdom, and while she was joined most frequently she would host her own daemon- a climbing creature with large claws and a large nose, a steady thing that liked to cling and cuddle to her, ever-watchful and often curious, trying to see all that he could.

Ezri came, then. And Ezri was not prepared for the host of voices in her head, nor for the host of voices from her daemon, who was no longer her own and was now one of many. He had been a small, patient creature, not unlike an ermine, with a gliding membrane hidden against his legs and sides. Ezri and he were not ready for this, but it was necessary, and he would seldom appear for some time, until she had learned to sort through the memories that crowded her mind, and could find him again.

The Dax symbiont would live on, as would the daemons and minds of all it’s hosts, and they would be there when Ezri eventually passed, and when those who followed her passed with her. How long it would live, it did not know, but the daemons all knew that they were one, now. A part of each other, and they would continue to be a part of someone for many, many years to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Note: Joined Trill retain all the daemons of their previous joinings, and these daemons tend to express themselves when they're using that joining's memories and thoughts! Joined Trill might consciously keep their daemons to one form when in public, though, to avoid attracting attention or arousing suspicion among those who don't know about joined Trill.


	3. Kira Nerys

Alla is a fierce, lean beast, and Sisko cannot imagine a single creature more appropriate for Kira Nerys than he is. The Hara Cat is somewhat larger than a domesticated cat, and it reminds him of a terran animal called a serval- all long limbs and wary ears. Ruddy rust-colored, with mottled spots down it’s back, he can tell that in a dense forest or jungle he would be practically invisible.  
  
Alla paces around Kira’s feet like living fluid, baring sharp fangs with little provocations, calming only when Kira is still and touches his head, flattening his large ears.  
  
Alla regards Jackie with cautious reverence, fitting the status of one cat to another, and Jackie and he speak when Sisko walks with Kira. Just as Kira is uncertain about why Sisko was chosen, Alla is. Just as she is tense and ready to fight, he is as well.  
  
Alla knows how to fight a Cardassian hound, where to sink his slender eyeteeth into scales. He knows the taste of Cardassian blood, and so does Kira, because when you’re struggling to survive you’ll happily sink your teeth into an unguarded hand or ankle to buy precious moments.  
  
Bashir’s the one who makes the stupid comment, and it makes Alla swat his daemon- a slender mongoose -across the nose, sending her scampering up Bashir’s leg and body to hide on his shoulder. “I thought Hara Cats had long tails?”  
  
He’s not wrong, they usually do, he just didn’t know. Kira snipped at him and stormed off, and Jadzia sighed, deeply, leading the doctor off and explaining, in hushed tones, that there were things that Cardassians had done during the occupation that he’d find entirely unfathomable. He left the talk with a new wariness to him, suddenly able to spot the injuries on daemons all the better.  
  
Bajorans had no tails to lose, but that didn’t stop Alla from losing his when they’d been caught once. Once settled, a daemon could be injured and carry those wounds, although Julian found it distressing. For a month afterwards, he’d glance nervously at Alla’s stump of a tail, and Kira would ignore it bitterly.  
  
That was Alla, though, ferocious and tense, like a coiled spring. But to see Kira and Alla at temple, or at their personal shrine, one would barely recognize the relaxed, languid feline that draped itself on it’s side, stretched out and yawning. Alla could at least be peaceful here, if nowhere else, with Kira’s mind at rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not-So-Fun-Note: Cardassians would handle and mutilate the daemons of Bajorans and it's super gross and terrible. Many Bajorans have daemons who are particularly skittish about being handled or bare odd injuries. It's also entirely likely that Cardassians did experiments in separating people and their daemons.


	4. Dukat

Cardassian hounds come in striking varieties- there are the huge riding hounds as big as ponies, hunting hounds that stand waist-high, and even toy varieties barely a foot in length. They’re easy to recognize, however, calling to mind images the ancient earthly gorgonopsids as well as canines.  
  
Scaled and smooth skin, with stiff protofur manes and armored backs, like a crocodile mixed with a wolf. Those who’ve dealt with Cardassians know them well- after all, they’re the single most common form of daemon on Carassia. Virtually ever member of the Cardassian military hosts a hound, a powerful beast with heavy teeth that trots behind them, at the ready.  
  
Dukat, however, is different. Janiss drapes herself across his shoulders with languid ease, resting upon his armor. It makes Kira nervous, very nervous, which makes Alla bristle and watch her warily. The serpent isn’t terribly large, at her thickest midpoint she’s no bigger than Kira’s wrist, with matte black scales and a gray belly.  
  
When she’s roused, she raises up and her neck flares in a cobralike hood, a distinctly violet tongue, long and pointed, flicking from her mouth. The creature would be beautiful, if it wasn’t so clear that she was ready to strike at any given moment, just like Dukat. There’s something about the snake that makes her feel unnerving as he is, a little too predatory, a little too cruel to pass for a true animal.  
  
Kira almost wishes Dukat carried a hound at his heels- while Cardassian Hounds are terrifying and rough, aggressive beasts, a clear danger, this serpent is something far worse, with hidden fangs and hypnotically fluid motions.  
  
She doesn’t know if a daemon can be venomous, but looking at Dukat’s Janiss- the snake a little too attentive of her, too intense, too friendly with Alla despite his growls and hackles raising -she’s fairly certain they could be. If only this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Note: Janiss is a creeper. Obviously, of course, because Dukat is a creeper, but Janiss is one of those rare daemons that holds no issues with touching other Daemons or other people, and it freaks everybody out because she's so calm when being handled by others or when coiling around someone's neck to be gross.


	5. Julian Bashir and Elim Garak

Abuk is a clever little creature, every bit as bright-eyed and inappropriately curious as Julian is. Naturally, this makes her every bit as simultaneously charming and abrasive as he can be.  
  
She clambors up and down him like he’s a tree, her slender body wrapping about his neck and perching on his shoulders, crawling along his arms. She sniffs out curiosities and jumps when startled, her brown fur puffed up in an attempt to look larger than her skinny little body can manage. In short, Abuk is perfectly fitting for Julian, all the clearer when they sleep and she wraps her body around Kukalaka, her long tail twitching.  
  
Julian isn’t blind to the irony, of course, that Mongooses are historically known for their ability to battle snakes, when Garak sits down at his table for the first time and Abuk’s tail goes ramrod stiff and her claws dig into his shoulder as they both stare, wide-eyed.  
  
They have lunch regularly, and Julian decides to ask about the Cardassian’s Daemon, never seen, knowing that there are rumors, only to get a slight chuckle and one of those mysterious looks. “What makes you so sure that all Cardassians have daemons?”  
  
He’s sure that Garak has one, even if some Bajorans on the station whisper that he might not, that they heard that spies have had their daemons separated, or that some Cardassians are simply born without- which sounds absolutely ridiculous to Julian. There are species without daemons, and rare species with unusual daemons, but individuals among a population being without? It simply doesn’t happen.  
  
Garak’s a private sort, though, and plenty of animals could be small enough to hide in pockets or under a shirt, so he assumes and wonders, imagining a tiny venomous serpent. Garak, of course, takes any questions by misdirecting them until Julian stops asking altogether. Even Abuk has never managed to coax anything out of Garak, despite all her curious circling and sniffing.  
  
It’s not until the implant in Garak’s brain starts to break down that Julian realizes that he wouldn’t even know where to look for Garak’s daemon. When he catches Garak with the triptacederine Abuk is hissing and chattering in angry panic, betraying Julian’s attempt to keep a calm face.  
  
Garak finally directs him to the drawer, and Julian holds the triggering device, suddenly fearful of his graceful surgeon’s hands squeezing it too tight. That’s when he senses that Abuk has gone still, staring at Garak. That’s when he sees the tiny creature on Garak’s arm, the Cardassian gently stroking it’s head with a fingertip.  
  
It’s no snake, but a little lizard- squat and round-bodied, like a Terran horned lizard, with a short thick tail and a wedge-shaped head. He only sees it for a moment before it camouflages, a ripple of texture and color going over it’s skin, and then it looks like nothing more than a lump of cloth on his sleeve.  
  
Somehow, a supremely camouflaged creature seems like the perfect daemon for Garak- never seen and quick to disappear. He manages to find a name for the creature- a regnar, and by the time Garak is back to meeting him for regular lunches, Abuk whispers in his ear.  
  
Her name is Edokhis, and no, she does not want to talk to Abuk. Abuk feigns a wounded ego, but Julian’s satisfied that, on occasion, she catches a discoloration or movement, creeping from Garak’s sleeve or out of a pocket, or on his workbench in the shop, and can pick out the shape of the small lizard as Abuk zeroes in on her and prances around, playfully, trying to coax her into interaction.  
  
Garak takes this with astonishingly good humor, and Julian knows that to some degree, Garak must trust him, if he can see her. That’s enough to satisfy him for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Note: Abuk is named after a Somali goddess who is curiously represented by a snake! Edokhis is a grumpy little shy baby and Abuk tries very hard to engage her in conversation and games. Later, I also intend to write one about the effects of genetic engineering on Abuk.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun Note: Benjamin's daemon is a Lioness named Jackie, and although Jackie took many forms before settling she always seemed to revert to a lioness before long, so her settled form isn't surprising at all! Jackie's getting grizzled as the years go on, though, and is starting to get some grey in her beard.


End file.
